Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Obama: Elite means good

It has reached the point where the only sensible course of action is to bang one's head on a concrete slab.

Clinton and McCain are now lobbing the "elitist" label at Obama. Presumably this is meant to be derogatory, to drag Obama down and lessen his appeal by portraying him as being above the common man, an individual estranged from normalcy and the herd. Meanwhile, Clinton inhabits bars and relates stories of when she was taught to shoot while McCain wants to repeal the gas tax this summer. So Clinton has become an alcoholic gun nut. McCain is an irresponsible panderer. Obama is an elitist, educated entity estranged from the normalcy of day to day life. And Obama's image is the one in trouble.

Think about that. Then find a good spot at the head banging wall. Elitist is a pejorative; smart is a pejorative. Obama's campaign is damaged by other candidates saying that he is better than they are, that he is an elite entity while they are average, familiar, mundane.

What, I ask, the fuck?

I understand that it is rhetorically mundane to use the notion of a thing as "backwards", that this expression is trite and overused. Unfortunately this whole mess really is fucking backwards.

How unaware do voters have to be to see "elitist" as problematic, as undesirable, as bad? When did smart become a pejorative? What the fuck is wrong with these people?

My guess? It's this shit right here as provided by McCain:
"Hope in America is not based on delusion, but in the faith that everything is possible in America."

The problem, dipshit, is that it IS delusion.

The intricately constructed trap of American society encapsulated in the American Dream is designed to lure peasants (That's right. You're fucking peasants.) into the notion that they are the victors, that theirs is the goal to which one ought strive. Buy a house. Make babies. Vote for a dipshit. Dwell in the muck and strive for the mundane as you pray to invisible men in the sky so that they might bless you with piddly levels of wealth with which you may buy that which you do not need.

We're in this backwards-ass society in which elite is bad, in which middling is the height to which we strive. Citizens have taken to heart the story of Icarus: do not fly too high; do not achieve too much; do not stray from the herd. Strive to be smart but not too smart; good but not elite. They have latched onto the notion that the people for whom they vote need to be just like them. They do not want educated, responsible, qualified individuals running the country. They want plain spoken good old boys with whom they can share a beer and who will never use words they do not understand.

And they are wrong.

Elite is not bad, you fuckers. Elite is good. We need a president whose abilities and dreams and ambitions are above those of the common man. We are not electing a drinking buddy, "one of the guys", another George W. Bush with well-intentioned idiocy enmeshed in 4th grade level plain-spoken ignorance. We need an Obama, an elitist, an individual who is above the mundane. We need to elect a president who is better than we are and not another worthless fucking clod.

7 comments:

Unknown said...

One minor nitpick. Elite and elitist do not mean the same thing. One is good, another is normally bad.

To be elite, I agree with you is a positive, but to be elitist does not mean one is elite, it means one is arrogant enough to believe that the lower class is somehow less than the upper class in societal value, and that those born wealthy are therefore better than those born poor.

I don't believe Obama did anything wrong, but your rant loses all steam when it tries to make the leap that by call Obama elitist, his opponents are somehow calling him elite.

Caleb said...

Thanks kylebrown, no one was going to notice, but now...

_J_ said...

Words are neat.

Elitist

e·lit·ism
–noun
1. practice of or belief in rule by an elite.
2. consciousness of or pride in belonging to a select or favored group.

—Related forms
e·lit·ist, noun, adjective

I tend to think that elitist is not necessarily bad but rather has to do with the second part of the definition, "consciousness of or pride in belonging to a select or favored group". Elitist carries with it the notion of belonging to and being a member of the elite.

Certainly the word has snobbish connotations. The problem with these connotations is what you said, "To be elite, I agree with you is a positive".

Elite is good. Elite is desirable. It is not sensible to maintain the position that elite is good while also maintaining that awareness of one's elite status and focus upon one's elite status is somehow snobbish.

Even if we are to say that "elitist" necessarily includes the notion of being condescending towards those who are not elite, which it doesn't, what is the problem with this?

If an elite person says that stupid, lazy, and moronic people are stupid, lazy, and moronic (Which is not what Obama did) in what way is this problematic?

How is arrogance problematic when one is in a position to be arrogant, when one is demonstrably better than the people towards whom one is condescending?

Unknown said...

This is why I stated in my first paragraph that "another is normally bad". Words have meanings and then they have common meanings. Sure elitism can mean to be proud of one's heritage, but the common usage of this word in our society is to be arrogant in a belief one's self and his peers are better merely because he and his peers have more money.

We could follow the same thing and say that people were only calling Larry Craig a self-hating closet gay. He's just secretly happy and hates himself and all other openly happy people because he is ashamed of his own happiness. Is that so wrong?

_J_ said...

That's why I used the word "homosexual".

Unknown said...

For the most part you did, and when you used gay you did quote it, so I will let it slide this time. You're anal-retentiveness has won you the day this time. Damn you!!!!

_J_ said...

"You're [sic] anal-retentiveness has won you the day this time."

My anal-retentiveness always wins me the day.

Except with girls I date.

They hate it.